Power supply for the CAT

Although it seems everything matter with PC audio(CAT,CACP,PcHiFi...)

But as time goes by ,

We have found out that are only three key points to the hardware.

Power supply,clock & vibration.

All other things are connecting to them.

Same as analog audio devices,
The power supply is the elements of the most basic.
With a good linear PSU,
It will solve many problems with hardware.

Because a full linear PSU for CAT is big & expensive,
A dc to atx psu will be the appropriate choice.

This dc to atx is similar to picoPSU,
But it accept +16V to +24V dc input.
picoPSU accept only with +12 dc input
So picoPSU's +12V output is not a fair supply  for MB & CPU
And I choose this wide range input psu for my server

A 120W linear PSU for picoPSU is very important,
If you use adapter for picoPSU,
The SQ will be worse to a good atxPSU.

A single picoPSU is not enough for a full dynamic,
It is nothing to do with the power input.
That is because of MB's power supply circuit structure
You need another 120w linearPSU for CPU
Two linearPSU will improve SQ & dynamic.
 
Power cable is improtant,
But I won't recommend silver power cable,
Only if you have used linearPSU for picoPSU.
Power supply is the basic of CAT,
All hardware connect to  power supply.
Good power supply will improve every hardware,
EX. SATA cable,USB card,CPU,RAM................................................

Use a linear 12 V input for picoPSU will be fine,

But wide range PSU will have a better conversion efficiency.

For example,

A 120W picoPSU need a +12V/10A min. input,

A 120W wide range PSU could be use +24V/5A min. input

Linear PSU will have higher performance and lower cost & heat with low current output.

That is why I choose wide range PSU

A good linear PSU for the picoPSU is very important.

Although DC to ATX PSU will generate EMI,

But a linear PSU or battery PSU will decrease EMI,

And MB have many switching PSU for CPU,RAM.......

You should use EMI shield for chip & cables of course.

That is why I use aluminum block to shield the chips. 

And a separate linear PSU for CPU will improve the SQ,
Just insert the PSU with 4pin or 8pin ATX plug into CPU power socket will be fine 

Battery PSU is a clean power soure,
OS SSD,USB card with a battery PSU will increase sound stage,high & low extention
Very low noise floor & smooth sonic.

But battery need a vibration control,
It sounds quite different with a wood block for vibration control
Vibration mus be noted to battery supply

This is a battery structure digram,
It has large area of ​​the parallel structures
That is the reason why a battery afraid of vibration.

Unfortunately,
Cheap mobile battery PSU is design only for cell phone,
It will be no better than a linearPSU
So we have to build a audio grade battery PSU

But even so,
You could hear the improvement with a vibration control to this PSU

Why the SATA cable make sound different?

The SATA BUS contains a transmit and receive 2set of  balanced signal
Both contains CLOCK inside the bus
And SATA bus bandwidth up to 3GHz 
So SATA cable need a very high performance conductor  

Although the regular SATA cable can also be functioning of the PC
But that is because of OS's error correction function
With regular SATA cable
Your CAT will always do a lot of error corrections
So a regular SATA cable will degrade the SQ to your CAT

With my SATA cable
OS's working will became simple & continuous
So my SATA cable do a big improvement in SQ
This improvement do not need you to do a AB blind testing
Just replace my SATA cable
You will hear the big different right away  

For general user
You don't need any instruments to prove that
Because my SATA cable make your OS working simple & continuous
So you will get a shorter booting time,
This should prove the performance of my SATA cable

And with the similar reason
Use my SATA cable
You will have a shorter cd ripping time 
And got better SQ from cd ripping

The conductor of my cable
Have been fully tested with professional instruments

After a lot of R & D
All conductors of my cable now
Are multi-cores of silver-plated copper alloy
This is the best conductor for digital audio cable I have tried

With my SATA & USB cable
Your CAT will became a wonderful source
Over a year
I had over 500 users world wide now
And have many postive feedbacks from those users.
So use my cable with confidence

ODM of SATA & USB cable is welcome 
Any question,please contact
ppastudio@yahoo.com.tw 

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FYI,
Although these sata cables is not directional in manufacturing process,
But many users claim that my sata cable has a stronger performance for certain direction
For this reason,
All my sata cables have marks on it to identify,
You could try my sata cable's direction before burning the cable,
Higher energy,more smooth will be the right direction for the cable.
And these cables used silver-plated copper alloy,
You should burn these cables 200hrs at least,
And these cables will need 6 months for full performance.  
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Optimize the Musiland 01USD DDC

Some friends of mine have heard the modified 01USD.
It sounds good in neutral & well balance.
So they asked me to do some more.

This project is planning to use 4pcs of 18650 Lithium battery-powered
And USB +5V  charging the battery
Battery-powered is ideal and cheap to DDC
Because if you use a  linear PSU for 01USD
For a better sound quality,
You need to use an expensive power cord.
And battery-powered has a very low noise floor &  high resolution to full sonic range.


 
This is a new development silver wire output transformer for clock generator

 Output waveform of low jitter TCXO with buffer 

Output waveform of low jitter TCXO with buffer plus silver wire output transformer

As seen from the above waveform diagrams
The clock with better electrical characteristics after plus transformer
The results presented in acoustically 
are better texture,more stable image & more 3-dimensional space
And SQ  is naturally smooth, low distortion just like analog source!

Testing sample of second-generation resonance control small chassis

With two aluminum brick grip the main chassis
Very nice in the resonant characteristics and sound quality

My Solution with CD RIP

This is my cat,
Base on a MINI ATX MB with ATOM330 cpu & nVdia ION chip for 1080P video playback
Fanless,Full linear PSU, Sealed full aluminum chassis.
All my ripping & playing with this CAT

I have changed Green Label SATA into TZ YUN III SATA recently
That is because  Green Label is monitor style
It is near field listening,
Everything is clear and need a good optimization CAT for better result.
TZ YUN III is more smooth listening but in Green Label acoustics
Something like sitting in the 15th line of music hall to listen.
This CAT is for ripping & playing music
It is not a AV workstation,
So I like TZ YUN III more.
These TZ YUN III are prototype

End product of TZ YUN III SATA

I use CF card as OS & DATA disk

CF need very low power supply & better SQ to SSD

Two 18650 3.7V Lithium battery with auto charge for  CF
It is more detail in full range,higher S/N ratio & more extension to high frquency than linear PSU.

 
 This unit has 2 separate +5V output and up to supply 2 SSD in 4pcs 18650 battery.

I use 01USD as USB to SPDIF converter
This 01USD has been  modified almost in everything,
Every chips has it's own power supply,replace low jitter Clock,
Superb grade silver pulse transformer for spdif output.
And in a sturdy full aluminum chassis.

01usd has a well balance response and less coloring tone
After modified,It has very good sound quality!

I use DVD burner,
Ripping data via eSATA to CF data disk  inside the chassis


 
DVD burner's power is supply from my cat
My cat support 2 separate linear PSU for DVD burner & HDD

 Restore ripping data to HDD in 3 layer anti-vibration platform outside the chassis

Mike Garson's The Oxnard Sessions  for  ripping demo

DVD burner in single platform

demo piece

DVD buner in 3 layer platform

DEMO piece

You should hear the different between these 2 files

CD RIP is the basic elements of CAT

Worth to invest more effort

USB 3.0 CARD for HighEnd CAT

專為CAT打造的HighEnd級音響用USB 3.0 PCIE擴充卡
依據網兄們的測試結果
這張改裝過的卡
在解析,動態與高低延伸方面
都比一般的USB 3.0 PCIE擴充卡好很多
當然也優於主機板內建的USB2.0,USB3.0好很多

This USB  3.0 card has been modify for HighEnd grade CAT

According to use's feedback,

This card much better than other usb card or MB usb port.

More extention on both high & low frequency and more detail & dynamic

使用NEC D720200晶片

Base on NEC D720200 chip

搭配日製長壽型電容
可以延長這塊板子的使用壽命

Low ESR capacitor for long-tern working 

這張卡使用特別訂製的低相噪(Low Jitter)溫度補償時脈
聲音表現比一般的TCXO來得更富音樂性

Accurate TCXO for better sonic

時脈的輸出IC選用日本東芝原廠的超高速緩衝IC
配合抗EMI屏蔽鋁塊加上銀線配置
聲音表現直追僅使用一般高速緩衝IC的OCXO

Very high speed buffer IC for TCXO 

 

這張卡改裝後的厚度約為40mm,
要使用的網兄請先確定是否有足夠的空間安裝

This card need 40mm room to place

You need to determine whether there is enough space

搭配子勻III USB線後
馬上讓您的CAT提伸到HighEnd等級

TZ YUN III  USB cable   

TZ YUN II  USB cable


有興趣的網兄請至SkyDriver下載DEMO檔案





This PCIe to USB card is compatible with any USB device,
Including HiFace and sounds better than SOtM tX-USBexp for sure.
And it need PCIe power & external +5V(use 4pin D type connector).
For clean power,You should use full linear PSU.
Thanks! 

特仕版 USB 3.0擴充卡
 Low Jitter TCXO + 輸出變壓器
有著非常平順且自然的聲音
加上更低的失真
所以開大聲也不刮耳
Advanced version
Very smooth & natural sound and ultra low distortion
This transformer is premium grade for digital audio
And turn digital device into analog acoustics

使用小鋁塊配重後
大幅降低了卡本身的震動與失真
而能展現出厚實且美妙的迷人高頻
On the back side of card add two aluminum blocks for counterweight
This will significantly reduce the vibration and distortion of the card itself
And feel a wonderful charming high-frequency sonic

Please down load NEC uPD720200 driver  from  under links

http://www.lycom.com.tw/Drivers%20Download.htm

http://www.station-drivers.com/page/renesas.htm

Advanced version $169USD

"Green Label" The Professional Audio Grade USB & SATA Cables

A recording engineer by profession, 

I specialize in live concert recordings. 

I found most commercial USB and SATA cables that I use for my digital recording system to be lacking. 

Hence started my journey to build cables that would meet up to my stringent requirements for sound quality with neutrality and balance figuring very highly and using live concert sound as the benchmark. 

Some videos of my work.

For professional audio

All equipments must have highly quility in sound performance

Neutral and balanced are basicly requirements

And very clear sound's shape & contour 

The most important thing is those equipments must provide natural living and smooth sense as live concert

So I have developed Green Label USB & SATA for professional audio

In addition to my own use

Green Label USB and SATA is created with the above qualities in mind and is now widely used by other recording engineers here in Taiwan

As analog cables run low frequency signals and digital cables run higher frequency data and clock signals, 

analog tuning techniques such as gas fill in, oil fill in, cable ring and SATT cannot be accurately implemented to digital.

The solution to overcome this problem is to treat digital cable as a hardware of CAT.

SATA cables tend to be more difficult to develop as they require a much wider bandwidth.

 To achieve this the application of SATA Generator, SATA Analyzer and professional AP is utilized.

 SATA performance also requires the measurement of clock jitter as well as the transmitted and received signals.

All my cables have been designed with one goal in mind, 
and that is to achieve as close as possible transmission of signals in very high end and much more expensive cables that are currently being used in professional PC based audio equipment eg hard disk recorder, a/v workstation, PC recording interface etc… but at a more affordable and realistic price.

Green label has discontinued.
TZ YUN III is Green label upgrade version and in the same price.
It is more fuller & smoth than Green Label.